If you sew, quilt, do machine or hand embroidery, make sewing projects for friends and charities then welcome! Please visit with me as I let you know what is going on in my sewing room. I sew in a room that is like a tree house. I use a Janome Horizon 7700 and 9000 for my sewing and a Janome 300E and the 9000 for machine embroidery. Let's sew, quilt and embroider or at least talk about it!

Friday, April 14, 2006

Simon's Folly and Mar Jen for Error

After waiting over 3 months since I ordered them, Simon's Folly and Mar Jen for Error books are here. I have really enjoyed reading my copies today and have a synopsis for you now. I also have a review of another Jenny Haskins book The Millenium Quilt: Romance 2000.

Creative Expressions Special Edition Simon’s Folly Quilt with Jenny Haskins: a quilt by Simon G. Haskins. Included is a Design CD with 25 machine embroidery designs in formats for Bernina, Elna, Husqvarna Viking, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer. As a Janome owner, I can note that the Janome designs are in .JEF format, not .JEF+ and there are 3 designs in .SEW.

Simon is Jenny Haskin’s son and apparently decided that if he was going to work for the company, then he needed to make a quilt also. And he did! It is a beautiful quilt using both designs on the included CD and the Victorian Antique Cutwork Lace Design CD by Jenny Haskins. The colors used in the quilt are soft greens and pale pinks. Not only did he use machine embroidery designs to make his quilt squares, he used lots of stitch building using the decorative stitches on his sewing machine. This is one of the things I especially enjoy about Jenny Haskins publications is that not only do they have lots of beautiful full color photos of the work, but detailed instructions and for the stitch building, there are illustrations of each stitch used so you can use something similar. There is also a pull-out section in the magazine with templates of the included designs, and placement guidelines for the templates and quilt blocks.

As if that weren’t enough, six sewing machine companies (Bernina, Elna, Husqvarna Viking, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer) contributed a cushion (pillow) decorated with machine embroidery and a free embroidery design or two or three to make them up.

This is a lovely magazine that has much in the way of ideas, projects and instructions to make lovely heirloom quality projects. Currently we have two copies of this magazine available in our store. To purchase, click here.

Creative Expressions: Special Edition, The Mar Jen for Error Quilt by Jenny Haskins and Marti Mitchell. Includes bonus instructions for Beyond the Color Purple.

In this lovely magazine format, Australian quilter and machine embroiderer teams up with American quilter Marti Mitchell to make this wonderful quilt: Mar Jen for Error. This is a stripy quilt that features Dresden plate and fan blocks and long strips of machine embroidery roses. This quilt uses an abundance of beautiful rose printed fabric that is fussy cut to emphasize the design and the fabric. The machine embroidery made use of Art Nouveau Series: Spring Flowers CD by Jenny Haskins and the Dresden plates and fan patchwork pieces were cut using Perfect Patchwork Templates: The Dresden Plate Set by Marti Mitchell. Although simple in style, this quilt really shows how with extra care and time you can make an exquisite quilt.

Also included in this book is the Beyond the Color Purple quilt that was originally published in Creative Expressions #1. That magazine was completely sold out and is now out of print, so Jenny decided to republish the quilt and instructions again. This quilt makes extensive use of machine embroidered appliquéd flowers. The design softwear used in the quilt if Beyond Color Purple CD and Victorian Scrolls and Curlicues CD by Jenny Haskins.

There is a pull-out insert in the middle of the magazine to help with templates and setting your blocks as you make them. Currently we have two copies of this magazine available in our store. If you would like to purchase, please click here.

A Millennium Quilt: Romance 2000 by Jenny Haskins. Master the techniques of machine embroidery. Create this heirloom millennium quilt and other projects. This out of print magazine is packed with ideas for making the best of your embroidery sewing machine and the decorative stitches on your sewing machine. To welcome the year 2000 and the new millennium itself, Jenny Haskins challenged the most popular sewing machine companies to design three separate quilt blocks with each one to represent a different aspect of machine embroidery: texture, machine feet and stitches, and three-dimensional appliqué. Bernina, Brother, Elna, Husqvarna, Janome, Pfaff, and Singer answered the call magnificently. Not only did they produce their three blocks, each company designed an additional project which is also featured in this magazine.

Even if you don’t have the latest and the greatest in the way of computerized embroidery sewing machines, as long as you have a machine that makes decorative stitches, many of these projects will be within your capability. I am only familiar with the Janome sewing machine family and their projects were made with the Janome 9000.

I purchased this magazine new at a store where it had been hidden for years under other sewing magazines and it has obvious shop wear to the cover. However, the content is fabulous and worth your purchase for what you can learn about using your sewing machine and lighting your creative ideas.

This magazine is currently up for bid at eBay if you would like to purchase it. Just click here to get to the listing. Hurry, auction ends April 21, 2006

About Me

My two favorite activites are reading and sewing. The favorite thing of all is to read about sewing! I try to share reading and sewing information as often as possible.
I have also been selling on line for 12+ years on such venues as Half.com, eBay, Amazon, Alibris, and ecrater. Over the years I have tried to be helpful on the different selling forums, to answer newbie questions and help them become successful. For awhile now, I have felt that it would be important to share this information to a bigger audience that might be looking for help on ways to make money on line. So in that regard I have started another blog on First Steps to Selling On Line, since if you don't lay a good foundation, the structure will crumble.